Description

France produced many great metal bands in the early 80s (think of all the lovely bands on Devils records) but not many had any bigger success. An album that always pops up on a lot of want list from the most die hard collectors is an album with Fine from Bordeaux. I have seen the original vinyl album for sale less than a handful of times and it usually goes for 100 euro. I must say that the band line-up and album artwork have made me curios (I love those 80s covers with semi nudi females). Drummer Bruno Sarroy played with Morsure, guitarist Loran Laurent in Metalgods in early 80s and guitarist Chris Bonardo played with Steel Angel who released two great metal albums, And The Angels Were Made Of Steel (1985) and Kiss Of Steel (1986). Both Metalgods and Steel Angel were from Bordeaux and when Steel Angel broke up Bonardo and Sarroy met up with vocalist Jean-Philippe Demarcq and bass and keyboardplayer Geoff T.Piers and founded Fine. Fine recorded two albums, Up And Down (1987) this one, Black And White (1988). This second one was recorded at the Le Chalet studios in August of 1988. I have read that its one of the rarest metal lps in France and that its impossible to find but however I cant say it makes it onto the top ten list of French metal. By 1988 heavy metal wasnt dead but it had a bit of a hangover. By the first half of the 80s European countries had produced thrash and true metal acts but on the second half of the century most bands had started to include keyboards into their sound. Most Devils records band hadnt survived this long and the musicians that had been around awhile knew that they had to produce slicker and more keyboard based hard rock instead of pure heavy metal to sell albums. Sarroy and Bonardo hoped that they had done the right thing when they started this new act and they started to write melodic tracks in English instead of their mother language. History now tells us that unfortunately things didnt turn out as they had hoped and Fine were gone as quickly as they had arrived and not many had even taken notice about their brief appearance. Chris Bonardo would play with the groovy hardcore act Overlord for more than ten years and Fine members Bruno Sarrouy and vocalist J.P Demarcq would go on to power metal act Amethys. The two albums with Fine was released on cd for the first time in 2019 and both came with 3 bonus tracks

Track list:
1. Pray For Your Freedom
2. Mind It (Give Me More)
3. Sweet Funny Hero
4. Song For You
5. Wings Of Life
6. Black N White
7. Gone And Never Back
8. Blue Nightmare
9. When Love Makes Heart Glad-demo 1986
10. Tonight A Light-demo 1986
11. Melody Of Love-demo 1986